HOCKEY

HOCKEY; Devils Get Off to Fast Start and Draw Even

By JOE LAPOINTE,

Published: May 22, 1994

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., May 21—
Almost everyone around these parts seems to think the Rangers have the best team in these Eastern Conference finals against the Devils. The Rangers also seem to have clout in the National Hockey League office, which today obeyed a demand of the Ranger coach and suspended a key Devils player.

But, after four games in a four-of-seven-game series, the Rangers and the Devils have the same number of victories, two apiece, following tonight's 3-1 New Jersey triumph at Byrne Meadowlands Arena.

How can this be happening? Could it be the tenacity of the Devils, who have less talent, lower salaries and far less attention? Could it be that they were motivated by the suspension of Bernie Nicholls, demanded by Ranger Coach Mike Keenan after the previous game?

Could Keenan be over-coaching? When his team fell behind tonight, he benched several players and cut back the ice time of others, including Brian Leetch, one of his many stars. He pulled the goalie, Mike Richter, another of his many stars.

The clinching goal, by Valery Zelepukin, came late in the third period, when the backup goalie, Glenn Healy, got mixed up with Aleksandr Karpovtsev, a third-shift defenseman who got far more ice time than he usually does.

When the rookie defenseman turned away from the puck left behind the net by the backup goalie, Zelepukin pounced upon it. Healy, trying to scramble back to his net, tripped against the twine. Zelepukin took advantage of the open net to score the clincher.

The series, as good as advertised, returns to Madison Square Garden for Game 5 on Monday night. The winner moves on to meet either Toronto or Vancouver in the Stanley Cup finals.

The Devils played without Bernie Nicholls, one of their better centers, who was suspended for one game by the National Hockey League because he cross-checked Aleksei Kovalev of the Rangers in the neck with his stick in Game 3.

In the first period, the Rangers played their worst 20 minutes of the post season and the Devils played one of their best. The result was a 2-0 lead for New Jersey, an 11-3 edge in shots for the Devils and a change of goaltenders for the Rangers.

The Rangers slowly turned around the pace of the game in a sluggish second period and cut the Devils' lead to 2-1 as the teams went into the third session.

The Devils took a 1-0 lead at 10:17 of the first period on a power-play goal by Richer, his seventh goal of the post season and his second goal of this series. In Game 1, Richer scored the game-winner in overtime.

His goal tonight was only the second on the power play for the Devils in 13 tries this series. After the Devils won the face-off in the Rangers' end, Sergei Zubov tried to clear the puck but it ended up on the stick of Richer, who left Kevin Lowe behind the net and twisted around to the front on Richter's stick side. Richer beat Richter with a low shot.

Keenan began to shake up his lines, mixing and matching unlikely trios, sometimes without centers. One such combination was Glenn Anderson, Steve Larmer and Greg Gilbert. Larmer did the honors on face-offs, generally the role of the center.

The first fight of the series came at the 15:22 mark of the first period when Mike Peluso of the Devils tangled with Jeff Beukeboom of the Rangers. Peluso got the best of this one.

The Devils scored again at 16:54, this time at even strength, when Guerin broke in alone through the Ranger zone and beat Richter with a big, swooping backhander after a fake that brought the goalie down to the ice and out of the net. Scott Stevens set the rush up with a long pass from the left boards after Zelepukin took the puck from Larmer on a maneuver of borderline legality.

At this point, Keenan replaced Richter with Healy, who had appeared only one other time in the post season, also in relief.

The only goal came on the power play, scored by the Rangers' Stephane Matteau, at 8:47. He knocked down Tommy Albelin while fighting for position in the slot, then took a pass from Mark Messier, who was behind the net, and placed the puck between the skates of Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. In Game 3 here Thursday night, Matteau scored the winning goal in double overtime.

Keenan, obviously displeased with the performance of his employees, continued to shake up his alignments during the second period. Remaining seated for much of the period was Brian Leetch, whose left-point position on the power play was taken over by Esa Tikkanen. Also used sparingly was Beukeboom, Leetch's right-side partner for shifts at even strength.

Craig MacTavish and Brian Noonan saw even less action, and the coach put together some original combinations. Among them: Gilbert-Nemchinov-Kocur, Graves-Tikkanen-Anderson, Matteau-Kovalev-Anderson, Tikkanen-Graves-Anderson, Tikkanen-Nemchinov-Kocur and Gilbert-Tikkanen-Larmer.

The referee, Dan Marouelli, gave the Rangers three power plays in the second period and the Devils had one. Even on this chance with the extra skater, the Devils seemed more tentative than the short-handed Rangers. Their power play returned to its previous clunky state.

Karpovtsev, getting more playing time than usual, appeared during a power play for the Rangers and had trouble controlling the puck at both ends of the ice, giving an imitation of man trying to kill snakes. Perhaps it was due to the poor condition of the ice.

In the stands, there seemed to be more Ranger fans than usual. During a television timeout, midway through the period, they stood up in front of their chairs, many wearing their team jerseys, and put up a mighty roar of support while the speaker system played "Come Together," a Beatles tune.

Photos: The Rangers' backup goalie, Glenn Healy, coming out to relieve Mike Richter after Richter gave up two goals in the first period. Devils' John MacLean (15) celebrating with Stephane Richer after Richer scored past Rangers' Mike Richter last night in Game 4. (Photographs by Will Hart for The New York Times)